The present invention is directed to electrical outlet panels and more particularly to an electrical outlet panel which can accommodate different size electrical connectors in the same location.
In modern day point of sale systems which include a terminal device and associated peripheral devices such as remote displays, change dispensers, printers, etc., the peripheral devices are connected to the terminal device by electrical cables. The electrical cable terminates in an electrical connector which is secured to a connector panel attached to the terminal housing. The electrical connectors are mounted within apertures located in the connector panel. It has been found that after the terminal device has been in use, a need arises where additional peripheral devices are required to be added to the terminal device. In order to accommodate this situation, the connector panel has had to be modified by the customer to provide the additional apertures required to accommodate the number of peripherals that are to be added to the terminal device. The cost associated with doing this, aside from increasing the size of the panel, makes this a highly undesirable option. It would be more desirable to have a panel which can accommodate a number of different size electrical connectors within a small panel area.
Severable portions of a panel known as knock-out plugs or blanks have been used in electrical outlet boxes to accommodate only one electrical connector attached thereto. But in most prior instances, the knock-out plugs have been of a standard diameter to accommodate the electrical connector. An example of this type of construction may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,000,850, entitled "Outlet Box and Cable Clamp" by J. Knell. Where an electrical housing is required to accommodate several electrical connectors in the same opening, the opening in the wall of the housing has been constructed to contain a number of removable blocks which, when removed from the opening, provide for the mounting of a plurality of electrical cables within the opening. However the cables are mounted side-by-side which extends the size of the opening. An example of this type of construction may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 769,646 entitled "Connection Box" by F. E. Case.
It will be seen that the teachings of the prior art are unable to accommodate different size electrical connectors without increasing the size of the connector panel which adds a substantial cost to the terminal device.